So there's a lot of talk about gun owners starting militias to fight against the alleged evil government that they've decided is going to take away their guns. I can honestly say that I hope this happens and they assemble together to prepare for the ultimate showdown with the oppressive forces of the government. I hope that they all get together and huddle around campfires and set up pickets and brace for their heroic final stand against tyranny. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. Until the people in the group start looking at each other, realize it's fucking cold outside and that nobody is coming, and say "This is fucking stupid, and I'm cold. I'm going home. We'll try this again next week. Maybe then the government will come."
Reasons your gun arguments are bullshit:
Stupid Argument 1: "Law abiding citizens need guns to keep the bad guys away."
Why it's fucking stupid: Everyone is a law abiding citizen until the moment that they're not. There is no secret band of evil doers waiting in the dark for all you "good guys" to give up your guns so that they can flood into town and kill you all. You are not the Justice League, and there is no evil super hero team out there plotting to take over the world. Normal people commit the majority of gun violence due to paranoia or in the heat of passion. Not some shadowy group of "bad guys". People have the capacity to use guns, or anything else, for good or evil. Which brings me to...
Stupid Argument 2: "People die in car crashes all the time, so should we make cars illegal?".
Why it's fucking stupid: Cars are created for the specific purpose of transporting people. That is their main purpose. The reason that people are arguing over the need for semi-automatic, high volume weapons is that they were created with the specific purpose of killing human beings in the most efficient manner possible. And before you throw in "Teh AR-15 is nota miliatry weapon!#!#OMGF!!" let me point out that the AR-15 is simply a semi-automatic version of the M-16, which was developed to be the U.S. Army's main battle rifle. The only difference is the ability to fire in burst/auto mode, which is not available on the AR-15. Despite what you may use it for, it is not made for hunting. It is designed to kill people efficiently, and it is pretty good at it. To caveat on that, I have never used the burst setting on my M4 in a firefight. It's a waste of ammo. Therefore, I have never had a need in combat for anything other than what is readily available on the U.S. gun market.
The worst thing you can do as gun owners/supporters is to keep up these idiotic arguments, which I have just ripped apart. If I can do it, a good lawyer in a Supreme Court case can do it much better. Your best defense is to rely on the Second Amendment and the freedoms that it provides, rather than some stupid, over-used internet meme. Think for a minute before crafting your argument. When you see that it's going to make you look like either a paranoid moron or a mindless sponge for people's memes, cancel that argument and revert back to the old "The people's right to bear and maintain arms shall not be infringed".
Stupid Argument 1: "Law abiding citizens need guns to keep the bad guys away."
Why it's fucking stupid: Everyone is a law abiding citizen until the moment that they're not. There is no secret band of evil doers waiting in the dark for all you "good guys" to give up your guns so that they can flood into town and kill you all. You are not the Justice League, and there is no evil super hero team out there plotting to take over the world. Normal people commit the majority of gun violence due to paranoia or in the heat of passion. Not some shadowy group of "bad guys". People have the capacity to use guns, or anything else, for good or evil. Which brings me to...
Stupid Argument 2: "People die in car crashes all the time, so should we make cars illegal?".
Why it's fucking stupid: Cars are created for the specific purpose of transporting people. That is their main purpose. The reason that people are arguing over the need for semi-automatic, high volume weapons is that they were created with the specific purpose of killing human beings in the most efficient manner possible. And before you throw in "Teh AR-15 is nota miliatry weapon!#!#OMGF!!" let me point out that the AR-15 is simply a semi-automatic version of the M-16, which was developed to be the U.S. Army's main battle rifle. The only difference is the ability to fire in burst/auto mode, which is not available on the AR-15. Despite what you may use it for, it is not made for hunting. It is designed to kill people efficiently, and it is pretty good at it. To caveat on that, I have never used the burst setting on my M4 in a firefight. It's a waste of ammo. Therefore, I have never had a need in combat for anything other than what is readily available on the U.S. gun market.
The worst thing you can do as gun owners/supporters is to keep up these idiotic arguments, which I have just ripped apart. If I can do it, a good lawyer in a Supreme Court case can do it much better. Your best defense is to rely on the Second Amendment and the freedoms that it provides, rather than some stupid, over-used internet meme. Think for a minute before crafting your argument. When you see that it's going to make you look like either a paranoid moron or a mindless sponge for people's memes, cancel that argument and revert back to the old "The people's right to bear and maintain arms shall not be infringed".
There are a lot of reasons to hate the Christmas holiday season; deafening marketing, screeching consumers, obnoxious amounts of money that you’re expected to spend, and let’s not forget the pressure to find the inevitable “perfect gift for the man/woman who has everything”. While I do believe that all of this is bullshit, there is one reasonably new reason to hate the Christmas holidays more than all the others: Facebook.
You see, Facebook, and other social media sites, in conjunction with our assholes at all three main 24-hour cable news networks, have turned Christmas into either a time to declare your staunch secularism by refusing to acknowledge the religious nature of the holiday, or an opportunity to become the most belligerently flamboyant Christian since the Spanish Inquisition, depending on which side you’re on.
With little more than a month’s respite between the end of the presidential campaign (or as I call it: “FUCK YOU, YOU WANT TO DESTROY AMERICA BECAUSE YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ME!!!!! Time”) and now, I’m pretty bummed to have just over a month free of vitriolic hatred between what essentially still boils down to conservatives and liberals.
I know the history of the Christmas holiday. I know that plenty of religions throughout the world have celebrated their winter holiday on or around December 25th. I know that December 25th was chosen by the Romans as the big church celebration because it was previously known as Saturnalia, which was too popular a party for the Roman populace to let go of. I also know that the Norse celebrated Yule around that time, which from all accounts was a pretty fucking awesome party (read Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom for an awesome account of vikings partying their asses off at Yule… in fact, just read all of Bernard Cornwell’s books). All this is true, and I get it, but Christianity had to pick some time to celebrate Christ’s birth, and I figure the dead of winter is as good a time as any.
But we are now experiencing a barrage of media saying either, “America is the biggest Christian nation in the world, so why the hell can’t I say ‘Merry Christmas’?” or “Christmas is stupid because your God is a lie!”. Do we need to do this? Really? First off, let me address the idiotic right-wingers who seem to have a visceral need to feel persecuted.
Nothing, nothing at all, prevents you from saying Merry Christmas. Ever. I know, I know, you’re offended when people don’t share your fervor and commit the unmentionable sin of saying “Happy Holidays”, but let’s pause for just a moment. As America is not, nor ever was, a “Christian nation”, there are many religions here, and many of them have some sort of festival that falls ’round about the same time as Christmas. Not knowing who you’re talking to, but still wanting to be inclusive, you can either say, “Merry Christmas, happy Hanuka, merry Kwanzaa, happy Yule, happy Festivus etc…”, or you can just save time and say “happy Holidays”. Much like my beloved and blessedly time efficient use of the word “yall” to replace the confusing English second-person plural “you” or “you all” or “yous guys”, it just saves time and confusion. Going all militant and saying “Merry Christmas; and I said merry CHRISTMAS because it’s Christmas and it’s all about Jesus!!” just brands you as a confrontational ass-wipe and I will inevitably hurry in the opposite direction. So please understand that there are other religions that are doing things at about the same time and people like to include them.
Now to address the angry, frothing-at-the-mouth atheists or as I refer to them, the Grinch. The perception that these people give off with their non-stop barage of “Christmas is just a continuation of pagan religions that were just as dumb as yours and it’s just further proof that there is no god and when you die that’s the end” is one of not only belligerence that is just as unnecessary as the Christian-supremacy folks, but also one that screams that you just never got invited to the party so now you’re going to light the house on fire. Just as America was never a Christian nation, it was also not an atheist nation. America was founded to be religion-neutral. That means that everyone is free to practice their own religion, or no religion at all. But does that mean that you need to run around trying to remind people that, according to you, death is the end and that life is meaningless? Do you also like to walk around Toys-R-Us telling kids there is no Santa Claus and that one day their parents will die? Seriously, let people have their beliefs. The universe is a vast and wondrous place, and whatever lies beyond it is probably even stranger. Nobody has been able to prove the existence of a God or gods, but nobody can disprove it either. Does it necessarily have to take the shape of any religion’s textual explanation? Absolutely not. But to rule out the possibility of a greater intelligence that has a hand in shaping the universe is just as narrow-minded as to believe that dinosaur bones were put in the ground as a trick from Satan. In short, quit trying to start shit.
All this is to say that nothing quite gets my blood up like passive-aggressive comments about why everyone who doesn’t agree with you is an evil person. Especially in regard to something that should be a fun, joyous time of year. It’s kind of like Disney world; even if you don’t love Disney movies, all you have to do is enjoy the fact that so many other people are having a lot of fun and then before you know if you’re having a great time too. Conversely, if every article of clothing you own has Mickey Mouse on it, you shouldn’t feel the need to stop someone who is wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt and chastise them for wearing it at Disney World. Just shut up, both of you, and go ride “It’s a Small World”.
You see, Facebook, and other social media sites, in conjunction with our assholes at all three main 24-hour cable news networks, have turned Christmas into either a time to declare your staunch secularism by refusing to acknowledge the religious nature of the holiday, or an opportunity to become the most belligerently flamboyant Christian since the Spanish Inquisition, depending on which side you’re on.
With little more than a month’s respite between the end of the presidential campaign (or as I call it: “FUCK YOU, YOU WANT TO DESTROY AMERICA BECAUSE YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ME!!!!! Time”) and now, I’m pretty bummed to have just over a month free of vitriolic hatred between what essentially still boils down to conservatives and liberals.
I know the history of the Christmas holiday. I know that plenty of religions throughout the world have celebrated their winter holiday on or around December 25th. I know that December 25th was chosen by the Romans as the big church celebration because it was previously known as Saturnalia, which was too popular a party for the Roman populace to let go of. I also know that the Norse celebrated Yule around that time, which from all accounts was a pretty fucking awesome party (read Bernard Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom for an awesome account of vikings partying their asses off at Yule… in fact, just read all of Bernard Cornwell’s books). All this is true, and I get it, but Christianity had to pick some time to celebrate Christ’s birth, and I figure the dead of winter is as good a time as any.
But we are now experiencing a barrage of media saying either, “America is the biggest Christian nation in the world, so why the hell can’t I say ‘Merry Christmas’?” or “Christmas is stupid because your God is a lie!”. Do we need to do this? Really? First off, let me address the idiotic right-wingers who seem to have a visceral need to feel persecuted.
Nothing, nothing at all, prevents you from saying Merry Christmas. Ever. I know, I know, you’re offended when people don’t share your fervor and commit the unmentionable sin of saying “Happy Holidays”, but let’s pause for just a moment. As America is not, nor ever was, a “Christian nation”, there are many religions here, and many of them have some sort of festival that falls ’round about the same time as Christmas. Not knowing who you’re talking to, but still wanting to be inclusive, you can either say, “Merry Christmas, happy Hanuka, merry Kwanzaa, happy Yule, happy Festivus etc…”, or you can just save time and say “happy Holidays”. Much like my beloved and blessedly time efficient use of the word “yall” to replace the confusing English second-person plural “you” or “you all” or “yous guys”, it just saves time and confusion. Going all militant and saying “Merry Christmas; and I said merry CHRISTMAS because it’s Christmas and it’s all about Jesus!!” just brands you as a confrontational ass-wipe and I will inevitably hurry in the opposite direction. So please understand that there are other religions that are doing things at about the same time and people like to include them.
Now to address the angry, frothing-at-the-mouth atheists or as I refer to them, the Grinch. The perception that these people give off with their non-stop barage of “Christmas is just a continuation of pagan religions that were just as dumb as yours and it’s just further proof that there is no god and when you die that’s the end” is one of not only belligerence that is just as unnecessary as the Christian-supremacy folks, but also one that screams that you just never got invited to the party so now you’re going to light the house on fire. Just as America was never a Christian nation, it was also not an atheist nation. America was founded to be religion-neutral. That means that everyone is free to practice their own religion, or no religion at all. But does that mean that you need to run around trying to remind people that, according to you, death is the end and that life is meaningless? Do you also like to walk around Toys-R-Us telling kids there is no Santa Claus and that one day their parents will die? Seriously, let people have their beliefs. The universe is a vast and wondrous place, and whatever lies beyond it is probably even stranger. Nobody has been able to prove the existence of a God or gods, but nobody can disprove it either. Does it necessarily have to take the shape of any religion’s textual explanation? Absolutely not. But to rule out the possibility of a greater intelligence that has a hand in shaping the universe is just as narrow-minded as to believe that dinosaur bones were put in the ground as a trick from Satan. In short, quit trying to start shit.
All this is to say that nothing quite gets my blood up like passive-aggressive comments about why everyone who doesn’t agree with you is an evil person. Especially in regard to something that should be a fun, joyous time of year. It’s kind of like Disney world; even if you don’t love Disney movies, all you have to do is enjoy the fact that so many other people are having a lot of fun and then before you know if you’re having a great time too. Conversely, if every article of clothing you own has Mickey Mouse on it, you shouldn’t feel the need to stop someone who is wearing a Bugs Bunny t-shirt and chastise them for wearing it at Disney World. Just shut up, both of you, and go ride “It’s a Small World”.
I've been trying to come up with a good way to start this, but it hasn't arrived yet. So I'm just going to go with it.
Many of my friends are atheists. I am not. I have no problems with anyone's beliefs or lack thereof, but what does rankle me is the constant bantering about "If God were real why would he let bad things happen to good people?", as if that is the irrefutable proof of the God's nonexistence. They seem to think of God as a sort of a politician who owes his constituents nothing but good times and fair seas so that they keep re-electing him, as if his sole existence is based on our happiness. That irks me.
They forget about free will. You see, in order for free will to exist, God cannot control the actions of people. Simply put, we are not puppets. If something created the universe, as I think it did, I see no purpose to that creation with the existence of life. If such a being had the power to create the universe, then it would also set the laws in motion that would govern that universe's development and therefore would understand every aspect of those laws. Take a minute to think about that. It means that every action, from the movement of every atom to the collision and expansion of galaxies would be planned and predicted because the being that set it in motion built it that way. In such a universe, what would be the point? If you know everything that's going to happen, what's the purpose of doing it?
The purpose behind creating something so vast and yet so meaningless would be to create the environment in which something meaningful could take root. I'm talking about life. More specifically, I'm talking about sentience. All living things have sentience. Even if they don't have the level of self-awareness that we consider sentience, they have the ability to determine their actions to some extent, though for the vast majority it is merely striving to maintain the tenuous thread that keeps them alive. That means that all life has some level of free will. Free will is an indeterminable factor. Even if 99.99999999% of the time the actions of that life are completely predictable reactions to outside stimuli, that still leaves billions of actions that are taken that are not predictable. And every action in the universe affects the universe. That leaves changes in the universe that the creator would have have predicted, and has to readjust its predictions and views of that universe.
Life is like a child to that creator. It watches it grow in the house that it made to raise it in, and gets to delight in the ways that life surprises it. It has disappointments in the actions of that life and worries for its future, and sometimes takes an active role in working with it, but only through manipulation of the factors environment around us. Free will is not something that can be controlled, hence it being free. And as with children, doing everything for them and giving them an easy life doesn't allow them to grow.
All this is to say that blaming God for bad things happening seems incredibly vain to me. As if we can see all ends and determine the effects that the actions of trillions of lifeforms as well as the laws of physics will have on the world. We are incredibly small, but incredibly valuable. But as far as sentient life goes, we're very young. One day in the far future maybe we'll have a better comprehension of what the universe has in store for us, and by then we may be worthy companions for God. Until then, however, we should probably stop bitching and start doing whatever we can to shape the world we live in to be the place a creator would be proud of.
Many of my friends are atheists. I am not. I have no problems with anyone's beliefs or lack thereof, but what does rankle me is the constant bantering about "If God were real why would he let bad things happen to good people?", as if that is the irrefutable proof of the God's nonexistence. They seem to think of God as a sort of a politician who owes his constituents nothing but good times and fair seas so that they keep re-electing him, as if his sole existence is based on our happiness. That irks me.
They forget about free will. You see, in order for free will to exist, God cannot control the actions of people. Simply put, we are not puppets. If something created the universe, as I think it did, I see no purpose to that creation with the existence of life. If such a being had the power to create the universe, then it would also set the laws in motion that would govern that universe's development and therefore would understand every aspect of those laws. Take a minute to think about that. It means that every action, from the movement of every atom to the collision and expansion of galaxies would be planned and predicted because the being that set it in motion built it that way. In such a universe, what would be the point? If you know everything that's going to happen, what's the purpose of doing it?
The purpose behind creating something so vast and yet so meaningless would be to create the environment in which something meaningful could take root. I'm talking about life. More specifically, I'm talking about sentience. All living things have sentience. Even if they don't have the level of self-awareness that we consider sentience, they have the ability to determine their actions to some extent, though for the vast majority it is merely striving to maintain the tenuous thread that keeps them alive. That means that all life has some level of free will. Free will is an indeterminable factor. Even if 99.99999999% of the time the actions of that life are completely predictable reactions to outside stimuli, that still leaves billions of actions that are taken that are not predictable. And every action in the universe affects the universe. That leaves changes in the universe that the creator would have have predicted, and has to readjust its predictions and views of that universe.
Life is like a child to that creator. It watches it grow in the house that it made to raise it in, and gets to delight in the ways that life surprises it. It has disappointments in the actions of that life and worries for its future, and sometimes takes an active role in working with it, but only through manipulation of the factors environment around us. Free will is not something that can be controlled, hence it being free. And as with children, doing everything for them and giving them an easy life doesn't allow them to grow.
All this is to say that blaming God for bad things happening seems incredibly vain to me. As if we can see all ends and determine the effects that the actions of trillions of lifeforms as well as the laws of physics will have on the world. We are incredibly small, but incredibly valuable. But as far as sentient life goes, we're very young. One day in the far future maybe we'll have a better comprehension of what the universe has in store for us, and by then we may be worthy companions for God. Until then, however, we should probably stop bitching and start doing whatever we can to shape the world we live in to be the place a creator would be proud of.
So we just watched the new remake of Red Dawn. First, let me say that this was, without a doubt, the most terrifying movie I have ever seen. Though it is laughably awful in concept, writing, acting, special effects, and casting, it does contain something that's far more telling about the world we live in today than any movie in recent memory.
The movie was originally supposed to feature China as the enemy that takes over a large swath of the U.S., but due to the fears of the filmmakers of incurring Chinese displeasure, they completely ruined the plausibility of the film by making NORTH FUCKING KOREA the bad guy. That's right, North Korea somehow takes over the entire West Coast of the United States. Oh, and Russia takes over the East Coast... presumably by somehow using a Harry Potter spell to apparate over Europe and the Atlantic. So the fear of China is so great that we can't even make a movie pretending that they're our enemy, and Hollywood filmmakers, whose careers are tied to the success of a movie at the box office, are more willing to torpedo their own film rather than even make-believe that China (the only rival to the United States in the world today, and coincidentally a communist totalitarian state) is our enemy. That frightens me. When we were staring down nuclear obliteration at the hands of the Soviets, we had no qualms making countless films, from Bond to Batman to Rocky, depicting the valiant 'mericans whooping some commie butt. But now, we are so terrified of fiscal retaliation from our enemy that we cower at even mentioning them. Is China the modern equivalent of Sauron? Can we not say their name to "darken the light of day" here? Are they "The country who cannot be named"? Sack up.
Now, to the awfulness of the movie itself. A few things really sucked, and a few things inexplicably sucked:
1. The lack of the entire U.S. military. Seriously. One minute we're basically rewatching "Friday Night Lights" and the next minute there are literally hundreds of 1960s-era cargo planes flying over Spokane, WA dropping North Korean paratroopers. Where the fuck did these things come from? Did we just shit-can our entire SUPREME FUCKING DOMINANCE OF THE AIR for a day? Did the entire Air Force just happen to take that day off? Then there are no ground forces in the entire movie. The only pseudo military forces that show up are some retired Marines, who are inexplicably wearing middle eastern shemaghs, and talk like they're the hottest shit to ever pick up an M4. Because being a Marine makes you an expert at Unconventional Warfare...
2. North Korea's amazing lack of using a drop zone. Seriously, they drop thousands of paratroopers from their magic planes onto highly wooded neighborhoods. Being a paratrooper myself, this is something you kind of want to avoid. The entire invasion force would have broken legs and be hung up in trees. In the original, they dropped on open areas like football fields and farms. Not this one. Nope...
3. Within 5 minutes of the airborne drop, they North Koreans are running around in Humvees and tanks, blowing shit up. Did they fucking teleport all that equipment there? What the fuck?! Which brings me to my next issue:
4. The North Koreans are using all U.S. hardware. Aside from the AK-47 (required to ensure you know they're bad guys), every piece of equipment the North Koreans have is from the U.S. They're driving Humvees, using M2 .50cal machine guns, and (my personal favorite) driving around M1 Abrams battle tanks, despite the fact that a M1 Abrams is worth more than the entire goddamn GDP of North Korea!!
Now, I highly suggest you watch this film (when it's free on Netflix, which shouldn't be too long). I love it when a film is so fucking terrible that I can write a whole blog post tearing it apart. Please mock it, and mock the actors in it, and the producers and directors of it. Mock anyone who distributed it and who wrote it. It is a disgrace to the memory of Patrick Swayze, and needs to be constantly remembered as the reason that pussification of film should never been tolerated.
The movie was originally supposed to feature China as the enemy that takes over a large swath of the U.S., but due to the fears of the filmmakers of incurring Chinese displeasure, they completely ruined the plausibility of the film by making NORTH FUCKING KOREA the bad guy. That's right, North Korea somehow takes over the entire West Coast of the United States. Oh, and Russia takes over the East Coast... presumably by somehow using a Harry Potter spell to apparate over Europe and the Atlantic. So the fear of China is so great that we can't even make a movie pretending that they're our enemy, and Hollywood filmmakers, whose careers are tied to the success of a movie at the box office, are more willing to torpedo their own film rather than even make-believe that China (the only rival to the United States in the world today, and coincidentally a communist totalitarian state) is our enemy. That frightens me. When we were staring down nuclear obliteration at the hands of the Soviets, we had no qualms making countless films, from Bond to Batman to Rocky, depicting the valiant 'mericans whooping some commie butt. But now, we are so terrified of fiscal retaliation from our enemy that we cower at even mentioning them. Is China the modern equivalent of Sauron? Can we not say their name to "darken the light of day" here? Are they "The country who cannot be named"? Sack up.
Now, to the awfulness of the movie itself. A few things really sucked, and a few things inexplicably sucked:
1. The lack of the entire U.S. military. Seriously. One minute we're basically rewatching "Friday Night Lights" and the next minute there are literally hundreds of 1960s-era cargo planes flying over Spokane, WA dropping North Korean paratroopers. Where the fuck did these things come from? Did we just shit-can our entire SUPREME FUCKING DOMINANCE OF THE AIR for a day? Did the entire Air Force just happen to take that day off? Then there are no ground forces in the entire movie. The only pseudo military forces that show up are some retired Marines, who are inexplicably wearing middle eastern shemaghs, and talk like they're the hottest shit to ever pick up an M4. Because being a Marine makes you an expert at Unconventional Warfare...
2. North Korea's amazing lack of using a drop zone. Seriously, they drop thousands of paratroopers from their magic planes onto highly wooded neighborhoods. Being a paratrooper myself, this is something you kind of want to avoid. The entire invasion force would have broken legs and be hung up in trees. In the original, they dropped on open areas like football fields and farms. Not this one. Nope...
3. Within 5 minutes of the airborne drop, they North Koreans are running around in Humvees and tanks, blowing shit up. Did they fucking teleport all that equipment there? What the fuck?! Which brings me to my next issue:
4. The North Koreans are using all U.S. hardware. Aside from the AK-47 (required to ensure you know they're bad guys), every piece of equipment the North Koreans have is from the U.S. They're driving Humvees, using M2 .50cal machine guns, and (my personal favorite) driving around M1 Abrams battle tanks, despite the fact that a M1 Abrams is worth more than the entire goddamn GDP of North Korea!!
Now, I highly suggest you watch this film (when it's free on Netflix, which shouldn't be too long). I love it when a film is so fucking terrible that I can write a whole blog post tearing it apart. Please mock it, and mock the actors in it, and the producers and directors of it. Mock anyone who distributed it and who wrote it. It is a disgrace to the memory of Patrick Swayze, and needs to be constantly remembered as the reason that pussification of film should never been tolerated.
So here's what nobody wants to talk about when it comes to the immigration issue. You see, a lot of the people who are so strongly opposed to opening our borders up and reforming the immigration process are the very people who are making a killing off of the cheap labor that they're providing. It's in the best interest of the people who are making money by cutting their overhead in labor costs to keep pressure on the undocumented immigrants so that they're afraid to complain, and it helps to keep the focus on the immigrants themselves rather than the people who profit off of them.
The irony of it is that the people whose jobs are being affected are the ones who are blaming the immigrants. The blue collar Americans who used to be able to make a living are no longer able to due to being undercut. But instead of going after the people who are hiring them, we try to fix it by deportation. That's the power of good propaganda. You can make people ignore facts and believe whatever you want them to.
So here's the solution: you increase penalties for hiring undocumented workers, and simultaneously streamline the immigration process to make it so that they're not waiting for 8-10 years for their work visa. It's pretty simple really. Then you have people who are paying income taxes, are receiving benefits, and best of all, are entitled to receive minimum wage, which removes the incentive to hire people under the table. Enforce the laws requiring certifications for work such as welding, a/c and refrigeration, and construction. Simple as that. It's not rocket science, just take the passion out of it and you've got a pretty evident solution. Undocumented workers will stop flooding across the borders if nobody is going to hire them, and the ones who do come across will still have to compete with American citizens and will have the ability to make better money than they would have in the jobs that they get.
Just an idea.
The irony of it is that the people whose jobs are being affected are the ones who are blaming the immigrants. The blue collar Americans who used to be able to make a living are no longer able to due to being undercut. But instead of going after the people who are hiring them, we try to fix it by deportation. That's the power of good propaganda. You can make people ignore facts and believe whatever you want them to.
So here's the solution: you increase penalties for hiring undocumented workers, and simultaneously streamline the immigration process to make it so that they're not waiting for 8-10 years for their work visa. It's pretty simple really. Then you have people who are paying income taxes, are receiving benefits, and best of all, are entitled to receive minimum wage, which removes the incentive to hire people under the table. Enforce the laws requiring certifications for work such as welding, a/c and refrigeration, and construction. Simple as that. It's not rocket science, just take the passion out of it and you've got a pretty evident solution. Undocumented workers will stop flooding across the borders if nobody is going to hire them, and the ones who do come across will still have to compete with American citizens and will have the ability to make better money than they would have in the jobs that they get.
Just an idea.
So, it's Tuesday morning and damn near every Red state wants to secede from the Union. Wow. As if we didn't have enough ammunition for the Obama-Lincoln comparison, this is just fuel to the fire. Not only is this election already being painted as the "fall of the white man" by the pundits, but now we're actually having elected representatives attempting to break apart the United States because their side lost an election. As if the grandstanding and hyperbole wasn't at a peak, now the party leadership is comparing this to pre-Civil War era. There has to be a choice made by the GOP leadership, and soon. Either agree to work with the Democrats for the good of the country and have their voices and ideas shape the future policy, or tear the country apart in a fight that they cannot win. This is beyond brinkmanship, this is pure destruction. We cannot go down this road.
I'm currently deployed to Afghanistan, and as much as I love my job and enjoy the day-to-day aspects of life over here, I can't help but miss a few things. You see, we Americans place such little value on the importance of physical interaction, yet it is such an integral part of human life. I'm not just talking about sex, but simply hugs, shoulder rubs, cuddles and the simple physical interaction that lets you know that, on a very primal level, you are still a part of the tribe. Of course, I miss the sex too. But that's part of our culture as Americans. We don't touch each other, because it's something to be done in private. What keeps us sane (most of us, at least) is that we have the ability to get that when we are alone with our significant others. And those of us who don't, well there are nightclubs and strip clubs and massage parlors where we can go for that. But here, physical contact is not only hard to come by, but it's damn near impossible.
Human beings are social creatures, and being human is being part of the tribe. As countless studies have shown, the people with the most human contact seem to be the healthiest, happiest and most long-lived. As one wise stripper once told me: "Lap dances are good for the soul." So in closing, it may not be necessarily slutty, but can a guy get a hug around here?
Human beings are social creatures, and being human is being part of the tribe. As countless studies have shown, the people with the most human contact seem to be the healthiest, happiest and most long-lived. As one wise stripper once told me: "Lap dances are good for the soul." So in closing, it may not be necessarily slutty, but can a guy get a hug around here?
